1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to virtualization of computer resources. Particularly, the invention relates to providing a storage solution that enables server virtualization in data centers.
2. Description of the Background Art
Server virtualization is the masking of server resources, including the number and identifications of individual physical servers, processors and operating systems, from server users. Server virtualization can be used to make more efficient use of server resources, to improve server availability, and to assist in data backup, testing and development in data centers. Traditionally, server virtualization in a data center depends on a hypervisor and a virtual machine monitor to perform desired operations in the data center, such as monitoring memory pages as seen by a guest operation system (OS), copying data from memory pages in sync with processor registers and persevering all relevant sate of virtual hardware. However, dependence on hypervisor for server virtualization without an optimized storage management leads to system performance that is not scalable for server virtualization in data centers.
Another challenge facing the traditional server virtualization using conventional volume managers to manage data storage is lack of support for managing large volumes of data storage devices, e.g., millions of different volumes of data storage devices. Traditional volume managers deal with relatively few volumes and a simple block map for keeping track of the relatively few volumes. However, complex server virtualization operations, such as taking a snapshot of a whole OS image and continuing its execution at a later time from the exact point it was stopped, consumes a large quantity of data storage space. Traditional volume managers for server virtualization are most likely to fail to provide functionality that complements the needed functionality of server virtualization.
Hence, there is a lack of a system and method that implements data storage with functionality that enables server virtualization in data centers with enhanced system performance.